supersonic

Thanks for the wise words, everyone! :) Okay, I left some stuff out because I didn't want to portray this person I care about as a textbook case of addiction or anything bad. Just like y'all recommended, and I agree with, I pulled out the "I" statements and kindly and compassionately let them know that I care a ton for them and I am worried about the odd sleep patterns, the twitching I noticed, and the sometimes aggressive and irritable behavior lately, and yes I saw an email that mentions your usage of a schedule 2 amphetamine, a drug I didn't even know you took and we've been together for going on over a year. I did it after cooking dinner, and having a nice quiet and calm scene. My Md friend told me if they have something to hide, it could get interesting. If they don't, you'll only strengthen the relationship by showing compassionately how much you care and tell them your concerns. Well, it was more chaotic than I could have even imagined. The answers to my concerns were "Oh I've always twitched.. and I'm just on your sleep schedule - that's why I stay up so late. I can work on 3 hours no problem..." After mentioning the drugs, though, they went ballistic, accused me of stealing their private medical info, and literally ran off. Disappeared. I see I obviously touched something raw. They have no family in the US, and no support structure other than 1 friend. You're all absolutely great in saying the BON is no joke - and I sure don't want to open that can of worms, but how do you respond to something chaotic like this? I only want them to be healthy and happy, and voiced concerns that result in me worrying that they may be very far from that and since I know addiction or mental health problems can have a not very pretty ending, I sure want to help without harming, or help with minimal harm if that's the only viable option. Thanks y'all!

Hey All! I'm in quite the not happy situation.... I've been in a several year relationship with a nurse who I'm worried may be in the throes of a problem with drugs... so I'd love to hear what someone who has far more experience than me has to say about it. They have never admitted they take anything, but I know they have a history of taking ritalin, wellbutrin, prozac, and also know they currently take adderall, and have seen in an email recently that they mentioned to a friend that they don't have adhd, but say what they have to say to the Md to get a prescription for adderall so they can feel better- it's the only thing that helps. Seeing that really shocked me, and made sense out of watching them only get 3 hours of sleep and go work back to back to back 12 hour shifts as an ICU float nurse, even after I tried to charmingly get them to bed earlier. They have a noticeable twitch in their face at times, and a zombie like gaze that just seems soo odd to me... yes, there's much more that I've observed but won't belabor it... I've read denial is a key sign of an addiction problem, and have thankfully never seen it before but this behavior is so confusing it makes no sense unless you apply this perspective to it. I'd love to hear any words of advice from good people who have experience with this. I sure don't want to cause them distress or harm their career, but the worry that they might be in danger themselves or a danger to patient care as a nurse, especially one who is a fill in/ floating ICU nurse and doesn't work regularly with any one group of people, really has me sincerely concerned. If I want to get them help, what do you recommend? Contact the board of nursing? Employer? Just leave it be and hope they are okay?